Listenin' to Classical Music and Conversation

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by bluemooze, Feb 22, 2017.

  1. Alexlotl

    Alexlotl Forum Resident

    Location:
    York, UK
    That Mackerras Schubert was rather wonderful - I do love the sound of valveless brass, and that composition makes excellent use of it. Very pleased with that!

    More symphonies, dusting off this under-listened-to collection:

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    Jean Sibelius - Symphony #1 - Paavo Berglund / Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

    As mentioned previously, I've listened to Sibelius' tone poems and incidental music a lot, but rarely seem to come back to his symphonies. Making a conscious effort to break that habit.
     
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  2. NapalmBrain

    NapalmBrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kansas City, MO
    Golden Import reissue I picked up last week. Nice sound, decent performances
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  3. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Good sound and excellent performance make Mozart Requiem that much more enjoyable. Below are two of the three SACD's for this work in my collection but I have at least a dozen versions of this work ...

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  4. Runicen

    Runicen Forum Resident

    You step away from the forum for a few days and you wind up with a lot of catching up to do!

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    Now playing: disc one from Naxos' complete Villa-Lobos piano music (performed by Sonia Rubinsky). I'm unfamiliar with these works, but this has been uniformly lovely. I also picked up the Complete Guitar Transcriptions and Complete Symphonies sets on Naxos for Villa-Lobos, though I've only listened through the former so far. Really enjoying his work.


    I can appreciate the viewpoint here. I think my attitude towards The Hobbit is anchored a bit in my experience reading it first. I thought it was this stupid, light little book and my mind was blown when I got to the LotR trilogy proper because of how much higher the stakes got. Per the usual with Tolkien though, the trilogy doesn't start intense and high stakes. It almost feels like a continuation of the light tone of the previous book. Things rapidly go off the rails.

    In some ways, making The Hobbit a serious, high-stakes adventure tied into the tone of the trilogy breaks what makes it so interesting in the first place. It really gives you a sense of that hobbit mindset, which makes the sacrifices of the hobbits in the Fellowship much more significant when everything is taken as a whole.

    It's the same reason I really loathe the fact that Jackson left out the Scouring of the Shire aspect of the story from his movies. It drove home the impossibility of neutrality in the face of evil in a very potent way.

    Still, the movies are fun, but knowing all the powerful bits from the books does make them seem a lot paler in comparison. Stretching out the prequel the way the studio demanded really put me off just in concept for the same reason.


    They can bog down a bit (particularly in The Two Towers) because Tolkien LOVED in depth descriptions of places, but I cannot recommend reading the LotR books enough. They really are exemplary works. No time like the present. :winkgrin:


    I had no idea that the Goose game used that as its soundtrack. I was only aware of it by reputation. Might have to check that out.

    The surprising connection from my end was in listening to and loving the soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which favored a lot of minimalist piano music for the majority of the game. Later, I started to explore Ravel and I actually had one of my roommates come into the room while I was playing a Pollini disc of Ravel works (if memory serves) asking, "Which part of the game is this from? I don't remember it." The immediate assumption was that it had to be extra music from the game.

    Once I got to Casadesus' recordings of Ravel, the intersection got even stronger. Some of the music borderline rips off Ravel melodies. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery? :shrug:

    Considering the soundtrack takes up some 5 CDs, I think they can be forgiven for cribbing a few things to pad out the run time.
     
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  5. Mild Mavis

    Mild Mavis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Greater Europe
    I think I posted that I have his Mahler box set.
     
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  6. layman

    layman Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Tolkien was forever adding to and expanding his stories. The Hobbit did start out as a short, comic children's book, but in the decades after it's publication Tolkien decided to add to it's story and create a whole universe around it.

    As you pointed out, the LOTR and the volumes of lore surrounding the LOTR has a very different tone. The Hobbit is sweet and comic. The LOTR (and all the volumes and volumes of backstory such as the Silmarillion) are dark and gothic in contrast. I personally like the dark, gothic tone of the LOTR and I appreciated Peter Jackson basically re-framing the Hobbit story in that tone, so that it fit better with the other LOTR films.

    I would expect the new LOTR television series that will debut in 2022 will have the same epic, dark, gothic tone as Peter Jackson's films and this time instead of 3 two hour films (total of 6 hours), we could be looking at 20 to 40 hours of story per season (for four to five seasons). Thanks to Tolkien's tinkering with, adding to and expansion of his original Hobbit story (over the course of many decades), I think the lore and mythology of LOTR is rich enough to sustain that vast quantity of story telling. The new television series, after all, will tell thousands of years worth of LOTR stories. I am looking forward to it!
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2021
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  7. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    I enjoyed listening to it very much.
     
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  8. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
     
  9. vanhooserd

    vanhooserd Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville,TN
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    1978 American reissue of an Harmonia Mundi, France recording made 6/76 by Jean-Martial Golaz. With two countertenors, two tenors & seven instrumentalists, all directed by René Clemenic.
     
  10. PunkSaxMix

    PunkSaxMix free yourself from apathy

    Location:
    USA
  11. PunkSaxMix

    PunkSaxMix free yourself from apathy

    Location:
    USA
    Actually this edition: Erik Satie Pianoworks, Joao Paula Santos, a Digital Concerto CD I bought used at a library sale.

    I haven't made the effort to post photos yet.
     
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  12. John S

    John S Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
    Ravel
    Rapsodie Espagnole
    Alborada del Gracioso
    Mother Goose
    Introduction and Allegro
    Daphnis et Chloe: Suite No. 2*
    Chicago Symphony Orchestra
    Jean Martinon
    Recorded 1968 Medinah Temple, Chicago
    *Recorded 1964 Orchestra Hall, Chicago

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  13. Runicen

    Runicen Forum Resident

    I think that's fair. The nice thing is that, either way, we have a LOT of media around that IP to take or leave as we see fit.

    When it comes to the series coming out, I'd be far more excited if the rumor mill didn't have it that Amazon wanted something akin to Game of Thrones, with the emphasis on intrigues, violence, and sex. Game of Thrones can be GoT, but if that's even halfway true and they're trying to sleaze up Tolkien - especially the Silmarillion - I'm out completely. That doesn't need to be shoe-horned into EVERYTHING.

    Frankly, the stories are interesting enough on their own IMO.

    Back to the original topic of the books vs. the movies, I think it's actually kind of impressive that The Hobbit really was the "beta test" for the world at large and tonally completely separate from what was to follow and yet the reader doesn't have to do all manner of logical backflipping to accept that it's the same world throughout. Creatively, that's very difficult to pull off. Just ask George Lucas putting Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequels! :laugh:
     
  14. Bachtoven

    Bachtoven Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    Today Symphony No.7 and the Violin Concerto. Both are excellent. Heifetz has always been my gold standard, but Ferras does a fine job—perhaps a little less white hot at times than Heifetz.
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  15. Daedalus

    Daedalus I haven't heard it all.....

    I am presently listening to this magnificent performance of Prokofiev’s arguably greatest opera. This version is the uncut one clocking in at just over 4 hours. Another wonderful performance in my opinion is the Bolshoi under the baton of Melik-Pashayev, but that one is a shortened version. This recording may be Rostropovich’s finest hour as a conductor. It was , for him, a labor of love and tribute to his friend Prokofiev. This recording was released in 1988 on Erato with libretto included. The new Warner boxes cheapened out and deleted libretto booklet. Edit: The Gergiev/Kirov release on Philips from a few years back is very good but for me not in the top two.[​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2021
  16. layman

    layman Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    I have heard that rumor too, but there is no sex in Tolkien and the Tolkien Estate maintained creative control (and veto power) over this project, so I don't think the tone of the series will be that different to the movies.

    With that said, I think GoT was a straight-up rip-off of LOTR and I would not be surprised if the rationale behind the LOTR series was to outdo GoT.
     
  17. JuniorMaineGuide

    JuniorMaineGuide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boulder, Colorado
    I love this CD!
     
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  18. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Ummm, there's a C.P.E. Bach thread worth perusing - and contributing to if you feel inclined. :)
    Playing CD 24 of this Hanssler box set. I've it for a while yet I've only played 4 or 5 discs and have had quite the opposite reaction to the work - his musical ideas seem inexhaustible. Must say, the idiotically sealed paper sleeves don't make the prospect of another meticulous peeling session appealing. C.P.E. apparently inherited the genius of his father but retained his unique idiosyncratic voice. It's one of the wonders in my small collection. Glad I nabbed it while it was under $80. Won't find anything like that price for it now. Perhaps they'll do a another pressing.
     
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  19. Mirror Image

    Mirror Image 200 Years Of Anton Bruckner

    Location:
    United States
    NP:

    Prokofiev
    String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 92
    Pavel Haas Quartet


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  20. John S

    John S Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
    Walton
    disc 1:
    Symphony No. 1 in B flat minor
    London Symphony Orchestra
    Andre Previn
    Recorded 1966
    Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor
    Jascha Heifetz, violin
    Philharmonia Orchestra
    William Walton
    Recorded 1950 (mono)

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    Due to the dated sonics on this disc the concerto's Andante remind me of some dusty old movie melodrama. Still, Heifetz's warm tone come through nicely, and as the concerto progresses the music is anything but melodramatic.
     
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  21. Jamsterdammer

    Jamsterdammer The Great CD in the Sky

    Location:
    Málaga, Spain
    Now playing: Pietro Locatelli - 10 Sonatas, Op. 8 - The Locatelli Trio; Rachel Isserlis - recorded 1994

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  22. Mirror Image

    Mirror Image 200 Years Of Anton Bruckner

    Location:
    United States
    For Walton’s Violin Concerto, this has always been my go-to performance:

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  23. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
  24. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Listening to "Music by Ralph Shapey" performed by Miranda Cuckson (violin) and Blair McMillen (piano) on Centaur.
    • Five for Violin and Piano
    • Mann Soli for solo violin
    • Partita for solo violin
    • Etchings for solo violin
    • Millenium (sic) Designs for violin and piano
    2006

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  25. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    :thumbsup: For me, I've bought a package of unsealed paper sleeves and just replace them as I go. :)
     

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